Panathinaikos got away with a big win against Panionios for the 4th day of the Greek League. Now the team is preparing for a Euroleague game once more. It’s the second straight game away from OAKA, this time against Nancy in France.
Mike Batiste one of the players with a leading role against Panionios talked about the games against Barcelona and Panionios and also about the game to come against Nancy: “In the game against Barcelona we played with no energy. Regardless if we won or lost we didn’t show energy, we didn’t fight, so against Panionios we wanted to try and come out to show a little bit more effort. We did this and we came out with a good victory. Panionios is a very good team, a Euroleague team and we wanted to come out and play hard”.
How difficult was it to make such a come back with only one day to prepare? Batiste has the… honest answer: “I wouldn’t say “not so difficult”. It was a little bit difficult to come back in one day after the way we played in Barcelona. You know how coach is. He is going to challenge you mentally and that’s what he did. I think that’s the only reason why we played the way we did on Sunday, because he challenged us to play harder and also he makes it easier on ourselves. We know how important every game is in the Greek League, in order to take the home court advantage. We wanted to come out and get the win today. It’s tough to play in Elliniko. We had to come in and play with energy and everything else will take care of itself”.
Batiste admits that the game in Barcelona was something he has never seen in his six years in Panathinaikos. And not because the team lost: “It really wasn’t something like a turning point. It was little things. Spaces, some guys in the corner, no patience in running the pick n rolls. In offence we saw a picture that personally I have never seen before in my six years in Panathinaikos. It was something very-very difficult. The coach pushed us hard in practice, the practice was a little bit harder and it was a challenge that we took upon ourselves as players. Losing a game is not a problem. It’s the way we lost and today we wanted to show to our fans, to people that we can respond after this”.
Nancy is the next rival for Panathinaikos and Mike Batiste refuses to use the word “easy”: “There is no easy game. We got to go to Nancy to play serious. Anytime you go to play in another’s team home court you are always in a disadvantage, because they have the court and the home fans so we have to go out the same way we did against Panionios and I think we’ll be satisfied in the end if you do this”.
Kecman: Everytime to give our best shot
Dusan Kecman was one of the key players in the game against Panionios. Talking about the come back after the defeat in Spain, the Serb guard reached out as far as Nancy: “First of all there is no easy game. So the game against Panionios definitely wasn’t an easy game. Especially after the bad game we had in Barcelona we wanted to show something better. We prepared ourselves very well. We knew that Panionios was coming out of a bad situation itself, after the defeat in the game against CSKA. Against Panionios we played the way we are supposed to be playing: Giving 100% every minute in both sides of the court. Now we have to keep up with this pace. Now we have the game against Nancy. They have two losses already, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy for us. You cannot talk about easy games in Euroleague. It wasn’t easy against Panionios, we don’t expect an easy game against Nancy. It’s a Euroleague game and on top of that we are playing in their home. The thing we have to do is to give our best shot. We must play the way we did against Panionios with energy, giving everything for every ball”.
